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Classical CD Reviews: Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ and Mozart/Bach Adagios & Fugues (Harmonia mundi), Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 (Avie Records)

April 14, 2014
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Three reviews of new classical music CDs: one is inviting, another lively, and the last could use more intensity.

Hanukkah Book Review: “Jews and Words” — More Than Tongue Can Tell

December 12, 2012
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At first glance, Oz and Oz-Salzberger’s “Jews and Words” seems to be an unexceptional if elegantly written and occasionally witty contribution to the Jewish bookshelf.

Literary Appreciation: The Late Harold Bloom — Pursuer of “Difficult Pleasures”

October 17, 2019
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“What is the function of literary criticism in a Disinformation Age? Read, reread, describe, evaluate, appreciate: that is the art of literary criticism for the present time.” — Harold Bloom

Classical Album Review: “A Sicilian Traveller” — Exploring Different Corners of the Globe

June 30, 2021
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Cellist Alessio Pianelli’s playing is songful and lovely. The Avos Chamber Orchestra — essentially a student orchestra — imbues their performances with a confidence and surety that is inspiring.

Opera Album Review: Offenbach’s “La Périchole,” by an All-French Cast, Combines Zest and Elegance

September 26, 2019
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This is one of the zippiest, most life-affirming opera recordings I have heard in a long time. Well, this puts it a bit too blandly, because the work’s social satire also targets the smug self-satisfaction and careless cruelty of the powerful.

Poetry Review: Pierre Reverdy’s “Song of the Dead” — Imprisoned in Life

February 7, 2017
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Despite one’s aspirations to another kind of reality, for Pierre Reverdy one is forced to return to one’s fetters.

Music Commentary Series: Jazz and the Piano Concerto — Balancing Acts at Symphony Hall

April 27, 2015
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What makes pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet an ideal interpreter of Ravel’s Concerto in G is his understanding of and appreciation for jazz.

Theater Commentary: Why Are America’s Stages Afraid of Dealing with the Climate Crisis?

May 20, 2020
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Those who survive the climate crisis will regard American theater’s current indifference with incredulity and disgust.

Arts Remembrance: Critic Stanley Crouch — Jazz as a Metaphor for Democracy

September 21, 2020
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“I’m trying to get people to be at ease with the incredible amount of variety in the United States.”

Poetry Review: “The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett” — Castings

October 28, 2014
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Have we been missing a major poet while we celebrated a great dramatist and the most influential fiction writer of the second half of the twentieth century?

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